Peep Show

DW and I aren't sure why, but for more than six months, we've been receiving the BritBox streaming service, even though we haven't subscribed and aren't paying the monthly fee.

We're not complaining.

A couple of years ago, DW did subscribe to BritBox so that we could watch our favourite crime series, Shetland, and also so that we could check out other programs. But as soon as we were finished catching up on Shetland, we cancelled the subscription.

We had planned to renew our subscription when a new season of Shetland started up, but life got in the way and we never got around to it. We received reminders of the latest Shetland on our Apple TV box but did nothing about it.

Finally, about six months ago, DW and I decided that it was time to renew our BritBox subscription and clicked on the Shetland tile in our Up Next list on the Apple TV box. And, to our surprise, we weren't prompted to subscribe to the channel: instead, the show just started up.

We expected to see a charge on our credit card or on DW's Apple account, but one never came. And so we continued to watch it for free.

We've discovered many other shows but one that we stumbled upon is a comedy called Peep Show. No, it's not what you think but the title did make me think it was and, out of curiosity, I clicked it.

The series, which started in 2003, follows two dysfunctional friends who share an apartment in the South London community of Croydon. Mark Corrigan, played by David Mitchell, is an awkward finance manager, while his friend, Jeremey Jez Usbourne (Robert Webb) is an unemployed, second-rate musician.

The two friends seem to be polar opposites yet share the same awkwardness. And there are other recurring characters that add to the chaos. Olivia Coleman is a regular whose character, Sophie Chapman, is Mark's love interest.

Peep Show is addictive, and DW and I are almost finished the ninth season, which is the latest. We're not sure if it's the final season, as the show ended its run in 2015, but it seems to be the final season that is available on BritBox.

The theme song, Flagpole Sitta, by Harvey Danger, gets in my head and stays there for hours.

We've also watched a lot of other crime shows, such as The Bay, Unforgotten, Vera, and many, many more. Now that we've cancelled nearly all of our American streaming services—Prime, Paramount+, Disney+, Netflix—we've really cut down on our TV consumption but hope that BritBox remains.

And if they eventually start charging us, I think we'd be happy to pay.